Splendid!!

This is truly one of the best books I have ever read.

From the moment I picked it up, I was completely engrossed in its pages.

The story was captivating, filled with twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat.

The characters were so well-developed that I felt like I knew them personally.

Each one had their own unique personality and backstory, which made them all the more interesting.

The writing style was also excellent, flowing smoothly and making it a pleasure to read.

I found myself lost in the world that the author had created, and didn't want to come back out.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a great read.

It's a must-read for book lovers everywhere.

Smart, sharp, and witty, this keenly-observed book offers a no-holds-barred examination of the lives of a close-knit group of privileged friends.

Once, they were the bright and beautiful, full of hope and aspiration. However, as time has passed, their dreams and relationships have been tested.

Nothing has quite turned out as they had planned. The intrusion of an old friend, now recast as an ethical and intellectual nemesis, into their lives sets off a series of crises with lasting consequences.

Part novel of manners, part novel of ideas, Murdoch juggles many balls in the air in this book. She deftly weaves grand themes such as politics, revolution, the many kinds of love, and what it means to live a good life through the lives of her characters.

The constantly shifting focus among characters adds further complexity to the story, but Murdoch never drops a thread.

Surprisingly, for such an ambitious novel, it is easy to read. However, decoding the events and images Murdoch describes in rich detail takes much longer.

This is an excellent book for readers who enjoy reflecting on a book long after they have finished it.

Iris Murdoch, known in her time as the brightest woman in England, was a remarkable writer and philosopher.

She was born into a loving family in a stable environment, surrounded by love and happiness. From a young age, she was determined to be a writer. She studied a course encompassing classical philology, ancient history, and philosophy at Oxford. During World War II, she was recruited and worked to assist refugees. When she resumed her studies at Cambridge, she was part of the circle of the master Ludwig Wittgenstein. She became a professor of philosophy and participated in philosophical conversations with the greatest minds of the time.

She wrote numerous works in both philosophy and literature. With a highly versatile personality, she was capable of seducing anyone and did so with those she intellectually admired, such as some of her professors, maintaining erotic relationships with both men and women before and during her marriage to John Bailey, a partner less interested in sexual relations who cared for her until the end of her days when she suffered from Alzheimer's.

Iris Murdoch had great vitality, richness, and ingenuity that she manifested in her novels. For her, literature is to be enjoyed and to reflect on moral conflicts. Her ideas about moral philosophy, her search for goodness, and "how to be morally better" are evident in the situations she constructs in her novels. The plot, skillfully woven through her great narrative ability, presents us with accidental and unpredictable situations, often the result of entanglements due to sudden love affairs between unimaginable characters. As seen in her book "The Dream of Bruno": "Love knows no convention, anything can happen. There is no impossibility."

In her novels, she explores the inner self, the deepest psychology of the characters, positioning us in their various minds. Whether in a novel centered on a main character like "The Sea, the Sea" or in an ensemble novel like "The Book and the Brotherhood," all the characters are sculpted in a very complex way, each is unique, although some patterns of psychological profiles are repeated between novels. The first-person reproduction of the most intimate thoughts makes us think of her novels as psychological. The comical entrances and exits on stage have a frenetic rhythm, and together with her dialogues, there is a close relationship with the theater. Although the theme of love entanglements may seem conventional, Iris Murdoch approaches it from the continuous game of perplexity of the reader in the face of the most unpredictable situations.

Gerard Hernshaw, the central character of "The Book and the Brotherhood," is a charismatic man who charms as he passes, with a leadership will and vanity, and has an air of Charles Arrowby from "The Sea, the Sea," an egocentric type but at the same time infinitely honest with himself.

There are more innocent characters and others with malice, others struggle between passion and puritanism,... in general, all end up intertwined with each other in a multitude of complex relationships, and we are drawn into their thoughts, the most diverse and specific to each personality. The continuous concerns about what one thinks of the other, which does not have to coincide with what they think others think of them.

"The Book and the Brotherhood" is built on a web of relationships of love affairs, jealousies, friendships, and undisclosed secrets of a group of friends who remember their student days in the humanities at Oxford and are aware of the evolution of their relationships with each other and of the political ideology from their student years to the present. The passage of time is crucial since the novel revolves around a brotherhood that is this group of friends who, as students, decide to finance the writing of a political philosophy book by one of the comrades, David Crimond.

Crimond is a mysterious character, admired and hated, a Marxist thinking genius, a solitary wolf and egoist, a learned man who dedicates his life to thought and the dissemination of revolutionary ideas. The vision that his former comrades have of him in those past years differs from the one they have in the present, in which he presents his revolutionary political ideas, too radical for them, and the dilemma arises of whether they will continue to finance a book of which they know nothing. Will it continue to be written or has it been abandoned for a long time? With the fear that if it sees the light, it will be of completely different ideas from those of the brotherhood at present. Of how political ideas evolve as each one follows the course of their life, their studies, and professional life.

After the almost seven hundred pages of "The Book and the Brotherhood," it gives the sensation that one could continue and continue reading about Gerard, Tamar, and Jean. It is a limited period in the life of some characters, which, like in the films of Rohmer, represents a specific fragment of their life in which we accompany them and which could well be extended in time.

**Original Article**: This is a short article. It needs to be rewritten and expanded.

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The original article:
This is a short article. It needs to be rewritten and expanded.

The rewritten and expanded article:

This is a rather concise article.

It is in need of being rewritten and expanded in order to provide more detailed and comprehensive information.

Perhaps we could add more examples, explanations, or relevant details to make it more engaging and informative.

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I have really loved this book to an extreme extent, and that's despite the fact that at the beginning, I started off hating all the characters.

I'm not going to do a rational review because I don't feel capable of it. However, I will say that now I want to read many more things by Iris Murdoch. And it would be a lie if I said that I haven't already done several searches in the library.

This book has truly had an impact on me. It has made me change my initial perception of the characters and has piqued my interest in exploring more of Murdoch's works.

I'm excited to see what else she has to offer and how her writing will continue to engage and surprise me.

It's amazing how a single book can have such a profound effect on a reader's literary journey.

I can't wait to discover more of Iris Murdoch's literary treasures.

Not my favourite Murdoch, but still worth reading, as she always is. It is a profound study of character, relationships, and philosophy.

In the first part of the book, I was completely entranced by the exquisitely detailed descriptions of the characters. Not only were their physical appearances vividly portrayed, but also their inner lives were laid bare with great precision. It was as if I could step into their shoes and experience their emotions firsthand.

However, by the second half, my feelings took a drastic turn. I found myself irritated and annoyed by almost every character. Their motivations seemed muddled, and their refusals to break free from their habitual patterns of being were truly exasperating. It was as if they were trapped in a self-imposed prison, and I couldn't understand why they wouldn't make an effort to change.

But still, there is a great deal here that I did enjoy. If I'm being completely honest, if it were any other author, I'd probably give this book 3 stars. But Iris Murdoch is in a league of her own. I still love her language, which is both beautiful and powerful. Her descriptions have the ability to transport the reader to another world, and her attempts to tackle big thoughts are truly admirable. Despite my frustrations with the characters, I can't deny the overall quality of this work.

Another wonderful Iris Murdoch. Her remarkable ability to treat her characters with the utmost seriousness, endowing their emotions with a power and an almost terrifying intensity, truly sets her books apart.

I never find myself questioning why I'm delving into the lives of the people she portrays. Their worries and obsessions are so exquisitely depicted and richly explained that one is never inclined to view their concerns as trivial or to laugh heartily at their troubles. This is no small feat in a book that, on the most fundamental level, follows a group of neurotic middle-aged intellectuals who overthink and who have never quite managed to leave their Oxford days behind.

Perhaps there are a few aspects of the book that I found less straightforward to engage with. The ceaseless internal monologues are often captivating, but due to their deliberately repetitive, contradictory, and self-indulgent nature, they can become arduous to plow through at times. Some of the psychological outbursts that Murdoch specializes in - such as sudden infatuations, impulsive decisions to abandon home completely, and poisonous suspicions - can be difficult to fathom or believe.

They are what make her writing so compelling - I truly believe there are few better writers when it comes to love and its attendant obsessions than Murdoch. But here, they can also assume a confusing or inexplicable quality. Take, for instance, Rose's brief infatuation with Crimond after a hideous confrontation-cum-marriage proposal, only to snap out of that very trance a few pages later.

It is interesting that Murdoch claimed this was a novel about Marxism. In a sense, it undoubtedly is - it engages seriously with its utopian vision, its potential cruelties, and its predictive power (or lack thereof) in all the earnest conversations that the coterie engages in. But, at its core - to me - it still seemed to revolve around the classic Murdoch themes, most notably love. The bulk of the novel is about loneliness and desire of a very personal nature - it focuses on the individual and their thoughts and feelings, placing their vicissitudes front and center.

Perhaps this is a sly critique of a Marxist aversion to questions of bourgeois morality and individual strife. At the very least, I think it serves as a reminder of the frailty of abstract politics in truly moving and shaking us, in truly explaining how we feel, unless it is intertwined with our personal lives. It cannot displace the most basic (yet infinitely complex) impulses of love and feeling - that is what still dominates the novel, the emotions around which any discussion of Marxism must revolve. In that sense, the personal may be political. But the political is deeply and inescapably submerged in the personal as well.

Este es de esos libros que se terminan con el sentimiento de triste satisfacción o de satisfecha tristeza al que alude Rodrigo Fresan en el fantástico postfacio que concluye la edición de Impedimenta.

Un libro que desde ya entra en mi lista de libros especiales, no siendo el menor de sus méritos haber sido aquel que me descubrió a Iris Murdoch.

Como casi todo libro especial, “El libro y la hermandad” no es un libro fácil de comentar e imposible de resumir en estas pocas líneas.

Carece de una trama como tal y abundan las disquisiciones socio-políticas, filosófico-morales y hasta religiosas.

Es un libro sorprendente en muchos sentidos, con escenas de un dramatismo que llega a ser irrisorio o grotesco, giros extraordinarios, locuras fantásticas, actitudes inexplicables e incluso absurdas, situaciones y comportamientos algo cómicos y hasta ridículos.

Pero, como la propia autora dice en “El príncipe Negro”, otra de sus novelas: “Somos infinitamente cómicos para los demás. Hasta la persona más adorada y amada le resulta cómica a su amante…”

La novela es, hasta cierto punto, caótica, torrencial.

Un narrador omnisciente nos va guiando por la maraña de relaciones pasadas, presentes y posibles que se establece en el interior de un antiguo grupo de amigos y condiscípulos mientras explora minuciosamente los hilos de pensamiento y sentimiento de cada uno de ellos formando madejas que pecan a veces de excesivas.

Un narrador preocupado por hacernos llegar los colores, las texturas, los olores; por la descripción puntillosa de los personajes, sus vestuarios y complementos, pelos y peinados, gestos y posturas, estancias que ocupan, paisajes que frecuentan y hasta de los alimentos y bebidas que acompañan sus encuentros y sus soledades.

Y pese a toda esa exuberancia de detalles, de discursos, de introspecciones psicológicas, nunca decae el ritmo de la narración, en ningún momento flaquea la tensión dramática ni el interés por el devenir de los personajes y sus disquisiciones.

La autora es virtuosa en el arte del diálogo, profunda en su discurso y poseedora de una sobresaliente habilidad escénica para moverse y movernos entre los muchos personajes que conforman esta novela coral y aunque no se pueda decir que Murdoch ostente un estilo narrativo propio y característico, de esos fácilmente identificable desde las primeras líneas, como nos dice Fresán, su prosa es “tan funcional como hipnótica y de gran potencia visual”.

Siendo también una novela de ideas, es, sobre todo, una novela de emociones y sentimientos, una novela sobre el amor.

Amor romántico, fraternal, paterno-filial, filosófico, religioso, amor posesivo, no correspondido, imposible, destructivo, ocasional, salvador, platónico, y, como no, el imprescindible amor a nosotros mismos.

“El amor es más que sexo, es una profunda y apasionada energía que todas las personas llevan dentro y que puede ser buena o mala. Pienso que esa energía es la cosa más importante en la vida del hombre”.

El amor como único punto de agarre en esta vida sin sentido, llena de dolor, angustia y sujeta a los vaivenes del azar.

Una vida en la que estamos obligados a elegir continuamente y, de responder sí a la gran pregunta shakesperiana, obligados a convivir con nosotros mismos, sin escapatoria posible, y a relacionarnos con los demás.

Murdoch nos presenta a un grupo de personajes, cada uno con una elección de vida, y que se equivocan continuamente.

En definitiva, la novela me ha gustado mucho y me ha dejado con ganas de más, de mucho más, un deseo que no va a ser fácil de satisfacer.

Llama la atención como una autora tan relevante ha tenido y tiene tan poco éxito entre nosotros.

Tras la fracasada biblioteca Iris Murdoch en Lumen y algunos intentos descatalogadísimos de Alfaguara o Alianza, hay que agradecer a Impedimenta, un agradecimiento más, su empeño en dar otra oportunidad a esta autora con la publicación en los últimos años de tres de sus novelas.

Posiblemente, su clásico estilo narrativo, tan alejado de las tendencias y los experimentalismos de sus contemporáneos, haya sido la causa de este injusto olvido.

Por mi parte, haré proselitismo de ella en cuanta ocasión se me presente, como es el caso.

I have now read several Murdoch novels, and while I truly enjoy them, they always have the same issues. Her method is to assemble:

1. An interesting premise

2. Exceptionally good characters

3. A strong sense of reality

4. Great descriptive prose that is lyrical without being overly flowery

5. Various subtle background themes and many echoes to ponder after reading

This continues pleasantly through about three-fourths of the book. At some point, she seems to either lose interest, run out of funding, or simply panic. Suddenly, all the threads are accelerated into her patented Catastrophe Generator, usually by killing off the most interesting character. Then it just stops. You're left standing among the wreckage of the characters, which are neatly tidied up into little piles to finish things off. It's like being an embarrassed visitor at the end of a party.

It's completely unnecessary and embarrassingly heavy-handed. Victims include "The Sea, The Sea," "The Unicorn," and "The Bell," plus this book.

It's like assembling high-quality ingredients, making an amazing cake from a great recipe, baking it perfectly in a very good oven, then inexplicably taking it out just before it's done and pouring ketchup and barbecue sauce all over it.

The plot follows a group of once-radical students who are financing an epic, left-wing work by their waspish friend Crimond. His book is almost always unfinished, and they are getting uneasy about their financial obligations and increasingly less left-wing as they get older and wealthier.

A cheating wife leaves Duncan, her self-pitying husband, for the second time. Her on-off lover, the irritating political revolutionary Crimond, is the best character in the book. He isn't malevolent but is entirely obsessed with his book and is a constant thorn in the sides of the other characters.

One of the friends, Jenkin, is described as the one truly "good" character by the goodness-fixated Murdoch. He is very likable but a bit forced at times. His bright, jovial eyes, constantly crinkling and twinkling with good humor and bemusement, were a bit overenthusiastically emphasized. He is also the most sympathetic to Crimond's revolutionary work. His friend Gerald is in love with him and eventually pleads with him to live with him as his love. Although Jenkin is straight, this becomes likely until the awful Duncan gets involved.

Meanwhile, useless, whining Duncan has gotten his young protegee pregnant. He goes off with a gun, intending to shoot Crimond. Instead, Crimond accidentally shoots Jenkin, who has wandered in unannounced for a chat. This seems intended to echo Greek Tragedy but actually just evokes vibes reminiscent of a crappy soap opera.

Probably the silliest part of this plot is the love life of Gerald. He is an extremely well-written gay character, portrayed as a fully rounded, non-tragic individual rather than a one-dimensional cliché (especially unusual for the time in which it was written).

After losing the new male love of his life, he immediately decides to embark on a live-in relationship with his bland friend Rose. He does this because she is a Good Friend, which is a Good Thing. It is presented as an unquestionably positive and wise move forward.

It would also be nice to have a gay couple that isn't immediately killed off for a change. Murdoch tends to be fond of tragic gays. I tend to picture her menacingly brandishing a hatchet as soon as my gaydar goes off.

This sort of puzzled me, as if Orpheus, after losing his true love, Eurydice to the pits of the Underworld, shrugged his shoulders and wandered off with the milkman instead.

The feeling is one of perpetual frustration, "settling" for second best, including slightly regretted abortions and slightly mismatched "endearingly eccentric" couples.

The only really successful thing is the book written by Crimond, which has had absolutely no positive effect on anyone he knows, though it does prod Gerald out of his apathy.

The whole book ends in a kind of bland resignation that is presumably intended to represent "goodness" and resolution but actually comes across as rather depressing. It's a pretty good portrayal of hypocrisy, both personal and political, read as a tragicomedy.

Possibly Murdoch was trying to show the variety in romantic relationships, but this didn't complement the political book theme. It's fun to read but sort of unsatisfying.

I know my gripes about this book are a bit unkind, but it's because this book had so much potential to be really, really good but was squashed by a ridiculous plot twist at the very end. Some of the dialogue and scenes are wonderful, especially the opening party and the scenes between Gerald and Jenkin. Murdoch is always fantastic at writing settings and creating vivid and interesting characters. It's as if she loses confidence in her own subtlety or the readers' capacity for a complex ending.

We must read more of this author. What a way of narrating, of describing characters and stories. A careful and exquisite language. A vivid and real portrayal of society, of its hypocrisies, longings, weaknesses and thoughts. Very good.

Her writing style is truly captivating. The way she crafts each sentence, choosing the perfect words to bring the story to life, is simply remarkable. The characters she creates are so vivid that they seem to jump off the page and into our lives. We can feel their emotions, understand their motives, and empathize with their struggles.

The stories she tells are not only entertaining but also thought-provoking. They make us question our own values and beliefs, and they give us a deeper understanding of the world around us. Through her writing, we can see the flaws and strengths of society, and we can learn from her observations.

In conclusion, this author is a true talent, and we should all make an effort to read more of her work. Her writing has the power to inspire, educate, and entertain, and it is sure to leave a lasting impression on anyone who reads it.

Murdoch is truly at the zenith of her literary prowess with this remarkable novel.

Her narrative style is both droll and engaging, captivating the reader from the very first page. What sets her apart is her ability to be forgiving towards her characters. She never resorts to sarcasm, but rather presents their stories with a sense of understanding and empathy.

Moreover, Murdoch is entirely comfortable with moral ambiguity. She weaves the tales of her characters in such a way that there are no clear-cut rights or wrongs, no easy conclusions to draw. Instead, she allows the reader to form their own opinions and interpretations, leaving room for individual reflection.

This novel is a testament to Murdoch's skill as a storyteller and her ability to create complex and multi-dimensional characters that resonate with the reader long after the final page has been turned.